A new app is seizing a $50 billion opportunity to save shoppers weeks of frustration

About a year ago, entrepreneurs Dori Yona and Oded Vakrat were
shopping.

"We were invited to a fancy gala in San Francisco," they tell
Business Insider. "So we went to Zara to buy blazers."

Yona found one for $129. Vakrat passed and ended up borrowing one
from a friend.

"I decided it was a bit expensive," he explains. "A few weeks
later, I found the same exact blazer for $65 and bought it."

Feeling ripped off, Yona dialed up his credit card company: "I
pretty much disappeared for a week and I did the very long and
inefficient price protection process. Bottom line, I was able to
get the $65 back two months after my purchase."

Price protection policies are different depending on your credit
card, but essentially, if you buy an item and find a lower price
within a certain time period after the purchase, your card issuer
will refund you the difference.

According to Yona, the process was a major hassle. That's
probably why so many consumers don't even bother.

In fact, there is an estimated
$50 billion in unclaimed savings each year in the US alone.
Many consumers aren't aware of price drops, or even of the price
protection policies offered by many credit card companies. Even
if they are aware, the paperwork required for refunds
can be daunting.

Shortly after the blazer incident, Yona and Oded Vakrat, along
with cofounder Ilan Zerbib, put their heads together, and a year
later, they presented their own solution to the public: Earny, an app which aims to get
consumers their money back for discounts on past purchases.

Previously, consumers like Yona could get their money
back through price protection, but it hasn't been automatic.
On NerdWallet, Ben Luthi points out that "depending on your
card issuer, you may have to register the item for them to track
or track the price and file the paperwork yourself to get your
refund."

That's where Earny comes in. The app launched early May and is
designed to automatically track your purchases, find better
prices, and file refund claims.

After downloading the app, you enter your email so Earny can
track your online purchases and find your e-receipts. If you
didn't get the best deal, Earny finds a lower price, requests a
refund, and the difference is credited back to your original
payment method. If you have an Amazon account, you also enter
that information, as Amazon is the only online retailer that
doesn't send you a receipt, the cofounders explain.

Earny

"It's complete set-and-forget methodology," says Michael Jones,
CEO of Science Inc., one of Earny's investors. "You get a
notification every once in a while that they saved you more
money."

The app is free, but the company takes 25% of each of your
refunds (besides the first, which is free). It seems like a
generous chunk, but, "The way we look at it, this is money you
would have otherwise never gotten," the Earny team explains.
"This is money that is left on the table."

There are a lot of companies that think about how to protect
customer pricing, Jones tells Business Insider, but, "there are a
few reasons why I got excited about Earny as an investor.

"First, they're not interested in trying to make me buy more
things. They have a singular focus, and that's retrieving money
that's owed to me. Second, they have the largest retail coverage
right now. Third, they have a fairly unique relationship with
credit card companies, and I believe over time, they will not
only be great at discovering where I overspent, but also
understanding that applying for price protection is not just
through the retailer, but also potentially through my payment
source."

The five-person Earny team recently moved from San Francisco to
Santa Monica, into Science Inc's headquarters.